Monday, April 11, 2011

Night of the Living Dead....Ehh.

The Night of the Living Dead seemed extremely silly to me. I know that older horror films in general seem silly because of their lack of technology in special effects, but I really did not understand the point of the screaming, delusional damsel in distress for the ENTIRE movie. I feel that her role made me take the film less seriously because I was constantly looking to see if she could get killed off by the zombies.

Also, I really appreciated the progressive racial aspect of the movie. I did not expect an African American lead male character during the time period or setting of the film, and so I was pleasantly surprised to find him as the heroic, level-headed protagonist. Despite this, he was also the sacrificial character at the end! This really crushed my hopes for the film. I was so pleased with the progressive character casting that I was willing to try and ignore the fainting lunatic in the background, but I found it an extreme cop out when he was killed off.

The camera angles were unique. I found them to be half-hazard almost, but I felt they did add a little quirk to the overall effects of the film. Overall, the film seemed silly and half-hazard. It almost seemed like they were trying to be humorous instead of scary. I honestly didn't enjoy this movie mainly because of the character Barbara.

4 comments:

I agree, one of the only aspects of "Night of the Living Dead" I enjoyed was the black protagonist. At the start of the movie, I appreciated the camera work and the hilariously stupid acting, but by the end, I was growing frustrated.

The black male lead seemed to be the only person who knew what was going on. It's like he was as irked with the rest of the characters as the viewers were. Unfortunately, the smartest role was the one to die.

The camera work, at first, used POV shots well, but it just seemed like in the middle of the film production just got sloppy, using no discretion.

Overall, I thought the flick was so bad it was humorous, but it was better than some of the other films I've watched for this class so it gets a thumbs up from me...

I was surprised to realize that the protagonist of the story was African American. It actually took me until the second day of view to make that connection. With some of the cheesy horror films that I have seen, I was also surprised that his character was not one of the first to die, as that is usually the trend. Like other people, I was pretty excited to see that his character was the last to be alive, and I was disappoointed when that was ruined in the final scene. On another note, I really appreciated how this movie, though hilariously bad by current standards, set the stage for future zombie movies. Over spring break I saw Dawn of the Dead for the first time and I noticed similar themes such as having to shoot the zombies in the head in order to kill them.

I completely and whole heartedly agree with your opinions on the film. I loved than an African American male was the lead character and the only level-headed person in the plot. It clearly took a stand to defend the civil rights act. His death at the end, however, was so disheartening. It made me wonder how many other people were killed unnecessarily. Maybe the director was trying to draw a parallel between his unnecessary death and the deaths of countless African Americans due to hate crimes. Barbara was the most frustratingly stupid female character I have ever watched. She really ruined the movie for me.

I too was shocked that the African American character not only didn't die first but actually made it to the end when the thought that he would be the sole survivor turned out to be too good to be true. I agree with Lauren that the stupid female roles really ruined the film for me though it was not just one, rather all of them that frustrated me with their lack of contribution though I guess that viewpoint "we have a sick child and two women" was a more generally accepted opinion of women at the time. I do wonder how the African American protagonist was viewed at the time, and how audiences during the 60's viewed his death at the end. Probably frustrating for many but possibly a satisfying ending to those who still held onto racist tendencies at the time.